Tell Me Something Tuesday: Halfway Through: A Midyear Recap (2021 Edition)

Tell Me Something Tuesday is a weekly meme created by Heidi at Rainy Day Ramblings in order to discuss a wide range of topics from books to blogging (and some slightly more personal matters thrown in for good measure). While Heidi is on an extended hiatus, there are five of us who are hosting it and providing the questions. The current team is composed of Berls at Because Reading Is Better Than Real Life, Jen at That's What I'm Talking About, Karen at For What It's Worth, Linda at Book Girl of Mur-y-Castell and Roberta at Offbeat YA. This week's question is...

MIDYEAR UPDATE: WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN UP TO?

[which I renamed HALFWAY THROUGH: A MIDYEAR RECAP (2021 EDITION) in order to be consistent with my previous midyear posts]

I've fallen into the habit of doing a midyear recap/check since 2018, so here's my 2021 one (under the TMST umbrella this time). What's happened in my life and on the blog so far this year? Health scares and wages guarantee fund, posting consistency and lots of adult (mainly sci-fi) book reviews, and a blinds+front door replacement nightmare...

😓 HEALTH SCARES

You all know about my health problems in the first half of the year, I guess, so I'll only recap them briefly. On Dec. 31st I had a pulmonary embolism, which was later ascribed to a leg thrombosis (if there's still someone of you who doesn't know the whole story, you can read it here). Also, my lymphocytosis flared up. After weeks of exams and medical appointments, things are much better now. I'm still under bloodthinners at this stage, but the bimonthly ecodopplers show notable signs of improvement. Also, my latest bloodwork results were encouraging - though my illness is what it is, and one day I'll need to take drugs to battle the white cells and lymphocytes multiplication. Thankfully though, that day has yet to come.

😷 LIFE IN THE TIME OF CORONA: YEAR 2 (PLUS THE USUAL MESS AND MORE)

This year we didn't have a national lockdown, but different levels of it depending on the case number in each region...anyhow, cinemas, theaters, pools, gyms etc. were closed anywhere, and bars, restaurants and the like were only allowed to offer takeaway and home delivery. My region went into total lockdown for a week only. Since April 26th, in parallel with the increasing number of people being vaccinated, more and more activities have been reopening, though with rules in place of course. Mind you, vaccines have been SLOW - I'm 54 and I was only able to get my first shot two weeks ago (my parents, mother-in-law and husband are fully vaccinated instead. He got his via the local hospital since he works there as a switchboard operator, while the rest of the family had priority access because of their age). Things seem to look good now. Since yesterday, we're not required to wear masks outside anymore, and case numbers have been very, very low lately...let's hope variants don't throw a wrench in our works 😐.

My boss put me on wages guarantee fund again - from March 15th to April 4th, then from April 19th to May 31st, and again from June 1st to June 30th. Like the previous times, I only worked the Mondays and Fridays. I regret to inform you that this time I didn't take advantage of my free days to perform a mad spring cleaning. Oh, I should have, but I had zero energy, and time just...flew? I did stuff, but nothing comparable to my 2020 performance. What did I do instead, you ask? Um. I read...I blogged...I talked to my online friends...the usual scenario 🤷‍♂️. And I scheduled EVEN more posts way in advance than I usually do. So, how come I never can seem to stop scheduling YET more posts? 👀

My study plan went to hell. I still haven't given up on it, but I'm procrastinating it month by month, so I guess it's the same difference. I just don't think it's doable, plus my life would be misery without my reading and blogging time. Then again, everything's getting more and more pricey, and I need a different job, and I can't seem to find one that suits my situation (and, um, age). Stalemate.

I got new blinds and a new front door installed (courtesy of my parents), but OF COURSE, it was just another tricky chapter in my already tricky life. The company made an appointment for Tuesday 8th, then cancelled it ONE day ahead, then wanted me to wait 3 more weeks because they were "busy" (and here I had already taken my curtains down and stacked them on the couch). After a bit of quarrelling, we were able to get another appointment for Friday 11th, but I had to take a day off (my husband couldn't), because OF COURSE the only day they could spare was one of the only two days a week I currently work 😠. I mean, it's like they were the only people who have commitments. But wait! it gets better! The appointed day they realised that the door was the wrong size and there weren't any blinds. They offered a refund, but goodness, I was too tired to start anew with someone else (and unwilling to live with my curtains on the couch for months, not to mention put them up and then down again. My body simply cannot 😓). Now, we're pretty sure the (wrong) door had arrived, because they made a new inspection to see if it could be fitted, but we suspect that the reason why they had been delaying the whole thing was that they KNEW the blinds hadn't arrived yet (were they ever ordered in the first place?), only they didn't want to admit it.

Scene 2: they make another appointment for the 24th. At 9.45 I haven't seen anyone yet, so I call, and they say the door is still in a warehouse just out of town and they have to fetch it themselves, since apparently, the courier is not making the trip for it alone, so there will be a delay of a few hours. Like, what? you even offered to come yesterday, for goodness' sake, only I declined because it wasn't convenient for me...and as of today, the damned door isn't in your possession yet?!? We practically were up at dawn for this! And couldn't you have sent the workmen for the blinds at least - or, you know, called? Anyhow...in the end they came at 2 pm and were gone at 5! All that fuss for...what? I mean, they made it sound like their issue with making an appointment was that they would need to spend the whole day here...

Last but not least - summer has barely reared its ugly head and I'm already fucked. Not only my legs muscles (as usual), but also my neck, shoulders and arms ones hurt ALL THE TIME. It's especially great when you have the whole house upon the aforementioned shoulders 😟. Some nights are hell, because I only sleep properly when on the side, and I don't know what to do with my legs. So, you know, fun.

The only good thing that happened during these six months was...a book giveaway win. The lovely Lindsi @ Do You Dog-ear? provided me with a copy of The Girl with All the Gifts by M.R. Carey (recommended by my friend Carrie @ Bright, Beautiful Things).

(Nothing else to report, I'm afraid. Yes, I have that kind of life 😢).

😅 MEETING GOALS...AGAIN

I started this year in a relaxed manner, because 2020 had been a mad race for my standards, and I wanted to avoid burnout...plus I had big plans of studying fo the alleged 2021 public examination (and we know how THAT went...☝). At the end of my latest end-of-the-year post, I stated:

 [...] for 2021 I'm falling back to my usual goal: 52 posts, one per week. I know it's sustainable - and if I manage to do more, great, but I'm not holding my breath.

Except...ARCs happened, and TMST posts happened, and...I did better than expected, if by a little. Let's have a closer look:

• 👍 total posts: 29 (in 27 weeks). At this rate, I might very well have been on my way to surpassing my goal...except I'm in dire need of a break, which means blog hiatus! (see below). And I don't care. I'm not blogging for the numbers anyway.
• 😊 reviews: 12 + 3 mini-review rounds. Breakdown: 10 of those books were ARCs, courtesy of NetGalley (mainly) and Edelweiss. Also, 8 of them were adult (mostly sci-fi, since I don't request the most common types of adult books LOL), and 1 was the adult last installment in a series that started as (dark) YA. Now, everyone keeps telling me that this is my blog and I can do what I want, but again - I'm sorry for the lack of variety, plus it's just weird to have a YA blog and populate it with adult reviews. In my defense though, I requested a number of YA books as well, but for some reason I wasn't approved. So I decided I might as well post (most of) my adult reviews in a timely manner, and review my purchased YA books in the second half of the year...unless a ton more of enticing adult sci-fi hits the shelves 😂.
• 😳 discussion posts: 0 (if you don't count the TMST ones, of course) - but those weren't even on my radar for the time being.

Also, a me-related bookish piece of news: the novel I beta-read a year ago found a publisher! I'm so happy for Joshua Winning and his contemporary fantasy The Shadow Glass! Read the deal announcement here, and mark your calendars for March 22nd, 2022!

👷 BLOG PLANS

As I said above, I mean to review a few old-ish YA from my collection, though I still have adult stuff coming (new and not-so-new). I'm also going to review more Seanan McGuire/Mira Grant backlist books, because there are just so many of those - I hope you're not getting fed up with them 😉. I'll still be involved in TMST, though I can only make time for answering a question here and there (sometimes I can't even answer my own LOL). I'll hopefully celebrate Halloween month with my usual Back to Black: Beating the Halloween Backlist review series. Frankly, I don't have the time and energy to do more.

On the contrary...I decided take a hiatus and stop fighting to stay on top of things for a month or so. I mean, a REAL hiatus, not my usual kind where I have scheduled posts and you can never tell that I'm gone LOL. I SO didn't want to, for the sake of my older books that I haven't (fully) reviewed yet - but I'm drained, and I want to read for fun alone for a while (though I'll drop a few minis on Goodreads). So, the blog will "rest" from Aug. 18th to Sep. 13th...very specific, I know, but I have appointed posts before and after. (In real life, though, my hiatus is already taking place, and will go on until the end of July, since I have already written all my posts up to Aug. 18th). Anyhow, this doesn't mean I won't stalk you lovely people on your blogs and Goodreads and Twitter. Books and blogging and online convos are the only joy in my life, so no, I'm not going anywhere 🙂.

Well, that's it for now. Did you enjoy this post? Would you like to participate in the meme on a regular or semi-regular basis, and get emailed the prompt list? Just head over here and fill in Jen's form! (Of course, you can jump in anytime you like - you are under no obligation to actually do all the posts, or even most of them, just because you signed up, and you can remove yourself from the list at any time). And if you're interested in participating in a more casual manner, or only in commenting, here is the TMST prompt list for the month of July:

• July 6th: How do you approach writing reviews? (a question I submitted)
• July 13th: What are your favourite posts to read? (a question I submitted)
• July 20th: What authors have you recently discovered and loved?
• July 27th: Where is your favorite place to read during the summer?

I'll be back on July 6th, and I'm so curious about your answers!

Now tell me something...how's 2021 treated you so far? and how did your blog fare? What are your hopes and plans for the rest of the year?